They defended stoutly and Redmayne kept them in the game with several saves.

The Sydney custodian produced acrobatic efforts to deny Leandro Damiao in the first half and Hidemasa Morita in the second and pulled off several less difficult stops to foil the home side until Saito struck.

Sydney had just two attempts on target. But both captain Alex Brosque's first half header and Anthony Caceres' second half efforts were comfortably saved.

Kawasaki had a strong few minutes in the middle of the first half but Sydney came back well later in the stanza.

Coach Steve Corica made two changes to the side that started their opening Champions League game.

Brosque came in for Iranian striker Reza Ghoochannej and midfielder Josh Brillante was left out, after it was revealed a foreign club, believed to be South Korea's Pohang Steelers, had expressed an interest in him.

"There has been overseas interest in Josh which meant he wasn't in the right frame of mind for tonight's game," Sydney's Twitter feed said.